An ongoing investigation into alleged illegal dealings finds Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is in more trouble than previously thought regarding his failure to disclose gifts from his secret benefactor, GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. The two have been in lockstep maintaining their innocence in the highly unethical case of an officer of the court accepting money and gifts, and have reportedly not been forthcoming about the number and value of gifts and trips according to Senator Ron Wyden, a top Democratic senator, who is heading up the investigation.
In May of 2023, Thomas was accused accepting a slew of extravagant gifts from Crow including luxury vacations, private school tuition payments for his grandnephew, cash and other undisclosed gifts. undisclosed gifts.
Customs and Border Protection records indicate that Thomas and his wife, Virginia Thomas, flew between Hawaii and New Zealand in November 2010 on Crow’s private jet. In his letter to the donor’s lawyer, Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, demanded more information about the financial relationship between Thomas and Crow.
But both he and Crow refuse to reveal the value of the ill-gotten gains and Thomas is definitely not returning anything he accepted.
In a letter addressed to the Senate Finance Committee, Crow stated that he will not submit a list of gifts he gave Thomas, who has dealt with renewed calls to step down in lieu of the scandal that was first reported by ProPublica last month.
Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, has requested full disclosure on all of the lavish gifts, trips and payments Crow has provided to Thomas over the years. In particular, Wyden wanted detailed descriptions of all of Thomas’ free flights on Crow’s private jets as well as trips on his yacht.
Thomas however is claiming that he checked with an advisor who assured him that the gifts were “not reportable” and that not only could he accept the gifts it was okay to remain quiet about them.
Adding insult to injury, Crow purchased three properties in Georgia from Thomas’s family for large sums of money which may exceed the valuation of those properties.
Thomas’ attorney asserts that the justice complied with ethics standards and that he is being intentionally targeted and this conduct “raises substantial separation of powers concerns.”
Sen. Wyden is not satisfied though with Thomas and Crows off-hand dismissal of his requests for disclosure and said in a statement on Tuesday, “The assertion that the Finance Committee lacks a legislative basis for an investigation of the abuse of gift taxes by the wealthy is simply preposterous. The bottom line is that nobody can expect to get away with waving off Finance Committee oversight, no matter how wealthy or well-connected they may be.”
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